


The Garbage Collector

by TheNightbloodSolution



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, On the ring, post murphy stealing half the ring but pre S5, spacekru
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-28 01:03:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15696969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNightbloodSolution/pseuds/TheNightbloodSolution
Summary: Whether there was rhyme or reason to what Murphy grabbed to put in his pile, Raven didn’t know. Sometimes, though, he snagged a part that she could use to renovate some of the tech she had on the other side of the ship. When that happened, he pretended to barter with her, but more often than not, just gave her the piece with a satisfied smile. Raven knew he left because he felt useless. He thought this, these parts and pieces, made him useful.





	The Garbage Collector

**Author's Note:**

> This was an idea I had before I went to sleep last night, so I wanted to type it up before I forgot it. This is my first Murven fic, I hope you enjoy it!

“Dishes, latrine, or Murphy?”

Pushing her bowl aside, Raven got up from the table. “Murphy.”

Emori cocked an eyebrow. “I would’ve chosen latrine.” Her voice was coated in loathing.

That was a lie, though, Raven knew. Emori always chose dishes. She didn’t like venturing in the bathroom any more than possible, considering Echo had recently been having… digestion issues with the algae.

It used to be that more often than not, Bellamy would volunteer for Murphy duty, but recently, Raven had been going to his side of the ship more and more.

Grabbing the last serving of algae off the table, Raven began to start the trek to Murphy’s side of the ring.

Her steps echoed against the floor, and she cursed the fact that even after all these years she still hadn’t mastered the art of being soft-footed. She could hold her own against Echo, Emori, and Harper in a fight, but she couldn’t for the life of her sneak up on someone.

Murphy was hunched over an old, Ark tablet, watching some movie he’d already seen a hundred times. His beard was growing passed it’s stubble length, and Raven idly thought that she should bring a razor with her next time she brought him his meal.

“What? No tackling me this time?” Raven joked.

He looked up, having the decency to pretend he hadn’t heard her coming. “I’m telling you, Reyes, I thought you were Bellamy that time.”

“Oh yeah, people mistake us for twins all the time.”

“Well, it’s not my fault your steps sound like you’re the size of a six foot five wrestler.”

A spell of silence fell over the two, Murphy knowing he hit a sore spot on purpose and Raven knowing that all he wanted was to push people away.

The clink of Murphy’s spoon against his bowl as he poked at his algae was the only sound filling the room until Raven said, “So, you find any good junk recently?”

The pile behind Murphy had grown sizably since the last time she’d visited. He had gotten into this habit since he moved to his own side of the ring. While Murphy might claim to have “seized” it for himself, the fact was he was on the side with almost none of the amenities. Other than when people were running laps, they rarely ever went to that side of the ring before Murphy claimed it for his own. It had one bathroom, a few tech rooms with busted monitors – where Murphy had miraculously found a working tablet – and a bulk of storerooms filled with scrap metal. Murphy had taken to foraging through the storerooms through the piles of junk and taking whatever he felt like.

Whether there was rhyme or reason to what Murphy grabbed to put in his pile, Raven didn’t know. Sometimes, though, he snagged a part that she could use to renovate some of the tech she had on the other side of the ship. When that happened, he pretended to barter with her, but more often than not, just gave her the piece with a satisfied smile. Raven knew he left because he felt useless. He thought this, these parts and pieces, made him useful.

“Take a look,” he responded, gesturing to his new additions.

She shuffled through the things, finding mostly broken screens and rusted over metal when her hands fell over a small piece. She fished the piece out of the pile and stared down at it, awed.

“What’s that?” Murphy asked, mouth half-full of algae.

“Pressure regulator,” she whispered.

A large swallow and a pause. “What’s it for?”

“Regulating pressure,” she replied, half a laugh in her voice. She remembered saying the exact same things all those years ago, with no laughter in her voice at all. She remembered Nygel for the first time in a long time. She remembered life before the ground, life before the ring, life on the Ark for the first time in a long time.

“Well, do you need it?”

“I can find a use for it. I mean, it’s not going to help with the fuel problem, but I can use it on our rocket.”

“Keep it.”

“What, no trade?” She smirked.

“Not for you, Reyes. You’re pretty much the only person I see nowadays so I figure I may as well just let you have it.”

She bit her lip, knowing he was right. She’d been the only one he’d had contact with for a few weeks. Emori flat out refused and Monty was on Murphy-strike after a particularly nasty algae-insult from Murphy, which meant Harper was on strike too in solidarity. Ever since Echo and Bellamy had begun… seeing each other, Bellamy had slowly retreated from showing up to Murphy duty. Reasonably, she knew, she didn’t have to keep showing up. Someone else would if she didn’t, but she wanted to. She missed him on the other side of the ring, wished he come back.

“Yeah, well, maybe next time you can just walk it over to me instead of making me come all the way out here to find you.”

He groaned, realizing he had inadvertently led the conversation to where it always ended up. “I’m not moving back.”

“I wish you would,” was all she said in response, and his eyes widened at that. It wasn’t the usual “why not?” or “this is stupid” that she liked to throw at him.

The half-finished bowl of algae was on the floor, forgotten, as Raven gripped the pressure regulator firmly in her hand and Murphy leaned forward to close the distance between the two of them.

Raven had kissed everyone on the ring, save Harper and Monty, sometimes more than once. She’d probably kissed Echo the most because Echo was the one most frequently seeking physical release from their space prison. Kissing Echo was always rough and desperate, an attempt at escape. Kissing Emori after she and Murphy had broken up was a one time thing, a one night thing, perfunctory at most. It was the way she and Bellamy had been right after she broke up with Finn. Finn. That’s what kissing Bellamy reminded her of, youth and Earth and the dropship and Finn. But she was no longer young, nor was she on Earth, so she tried to avoid the memories that came with kissing Bellamy.

Kissing Murphy didn’t feel like any of that. Kissing Murphy felt right. Which was why it was so hard when she was the one to pull back.

“We can’t. Emori,” she reminded him, careful to keep his eye contact.

“Right,” he nodded and his neutral tone stung as she knew he was masking some sort of emotion.

She walked away, footsteps as loud as they were the first time and Murphy’s spoon returned to clinking against the bowl.

She stared down at the pressure regulator in her hands, the thing that reminded her of life before Earth, before she knew what the ground felt like beneath her feet. The thing that reminded her just how different life in space was from life on firm soil.

Stalling her steps, she turned her head to stare back down the hallway, the edge of Murphy’s junk pile the only thing left within her eyesight.

Maybe, _she thought_ , things could be different when they got back down this time too.

 

 


End file.
